Entries Tagged 'search engine optimisation' ↓

Having a website is the new black – everyone seems to be doing it these days. But there are still a small percentage of businesses that have resisted the urge to dip their toes into cyberspace.

Why are they resisting?

• It wouldn’t suit our customer base
• We get enough customers without having an expensive website
• I don’t understand all that computer stuff
• It’s too expensive
• I don’t want to sell online
• I don’t have time for one of those

These are just a few reasons why businesses shy away from using the power of the internet.

Well, whether you sell online or not, a website is still a very powerful tool for any business. To try to convince you it may be worth taking the plunge, here are 4 reasons why you should consider a website for your business:

1. Open all hours

The last thing you want to do, being a business owner, is to be at your customers beck and call 24 hours a day. We are all struggling to get that work/life balance right, but when you own your own company that can be difficult.

Unlike you, a website doesn’t need to eat, drink or sleep and is open for business 24/7. Your customers can browse it whenever they want to. Plus many people will research local companies on the internet before making a decision about who they’ll buy from. So if you’re not on the net, the changes are you’ll be overlooked.

2. Credibility

As mentioned in my previous point, people like to research companies online before buying.

Your website and its content is a great way to instantly build rapport and credibility with perspective customers. They can take time to read about you and what you offer. If you come across well they will be more inclined to do business with you as they will already feel as though they ‘know’ you.

If you don’t feel confident enough to create your own website copy, hire a professional copywriter to write it for you. That investment will ensure your website contains copy that is powerful, search engine friendly and will convince your customers to get in touch and buy.

3. Money

Appearing online will boost your income potential. Even if you have a physical shop, selling online will generate income for you 24/7. As in my first point, your online shop will never close. If you sell services, your potential customers can react instantly to your website and email you.

With over half of all UK consumers now regularly shopping online (Forrester UK Online Retail and Travel Forecast 2008-2014), if you don’t have a website you’ll be turning your back on a vast untapped marketplace.

4. Widen the net

Having a website will extend your reach.

Rather than relying on local customers, a website will enable to you to reach clients nationally and even internationally. You will tap into marketplaces you’d only ever dreamt of working with before. This could lead to business growth, diversification…the opportunities are endless.

If you think having a website is too expensive, there are alternative services available. I’m thinking of websites such as BT Tradespace and myProspot. Both of these offer the opportunity of utilising their powerful platforms and extensive social marketing tools to market your business.

Plus myProSpot also gives you the opportunity of having your own website, with your own URL (e.g. www.briarcopywriting.com) so it will look just like your own specially developed website but at a fraction of the cost.

So as you can see, there really are no barriers to getting a website.

Sally Ormond, freelance copywriter, comments on Kieron Hughes’ post “Using YouTube as a keyword research tool for SEO” that appeared on SEOMOZ.org

When you think about keyword research, you probably instantly think about your products, services and geographical information.

The main tool you would probably name would be the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. After all, what better authority on keyword value than Google’s own tool, right?

Well there is also another possibility; one that actually gives you data from the search engine using public – so straight from the horse’s mouth.

I came across it in a post on SEOMOZ.org by Kieron Hughes – in his post he discusses the merits of using YouTube as a keyword research tool for SEO.

As Kieron states uploading videos to YouTube is simple, anyone with a computer and internet connection can do it. But it’s not the video itself that is valuable for research purposes; it’s the descriptive content that accompanies it that is a gold mine of information.

Taking the example of speech therapy, Kieron illustrates how a search on YouTube generated associated words such as:

•    Autism
•    Oral motor exercise
•    Chewy tube
•    Down syndrome
•    Oral motor therapy
•    Apraxia

That would not have been generated through Google’s tool. So if you are researching a subject area for a client in which you don’t have in depth knowledge, YouTube could prove a valuable tool in your keyword research armoury.

A gold mine of information

People from all walks of life, professionalisms and personal experiences use YouTube as a platform to share their knowledge and experiences. These are normally people who use the search engines daily and so are invaluable sources of information.

So by using YouTube as a resource you could change your initial site navigation from:

To something more representative of your industry with greater SEO potential:

So next time you are doing some keyword research – either for yourself or for a client – don’t overlook the potential of YouTube.

When you enter the world of blogging as a newbie its terminology can seem rather daunting.

Tweeting     –         SEO        –         HTML    –         Plugins

The best advice I can give anyone who’s looking to start a blog is to be yourself.

By all means take a look around the internet to see what other bloggers are doing, but at the end of the day, your blog is a reflection of you. It is your vehicle through which you can voice your opinions, give reviews and share information with others.

So how can you move from novice to expert blogger?

Here are 4 simple things to remember which will help you make that transition.

1. Be unique

As I mentioned earlier there’s nothing wrong with looking at other blogs for inspiration, but don’t try to copy or conform to the prevalent style in your industry.

You are an individual. You have your own dress style, your own sense of humour, you wear your hair the way you like it and you go to the places you want to go to. So transfer that individuality to your blog.

When starting out you’ll probably read dozens of articles about how to get started. Most of the information will be relevant and useful, but remember to use that as a guide only and be yourself.

2. Reliable

When you start to blog and build up a readership, make sure you stick to your blogging frequency. If you post on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday your readers will grow to expect new posts on those days from you. So make sure you don’t disappoint.

If your readers take the time to leave a comment on your blog (that’s not spam) respond to it. Even if it’s a ‘thank you for your comment’ generating that type of conversation is what blogging is all about.

3. Think

If you want to engage with your readership make your posts personal. That doesn’t mean to say you have to write about what you did last night or what you ate for breakfast. On the contrary, make sure your personality comes through your writing. Include your opinions; relate topics to situations you have been in.

Resist the urge to post in haste. If someone has wound you up or done something you feel strongly about don’t quickly write a caustic post. Always think about what you’ve written before you hit publish.

4. Attractive

Although it’s the content on your blog that will keep your readers coming back for more, it also has to look attractive.

There are numerous free templates out there so make sure you find one that suits you. Keep it simple and unfussy – less is most definitely more.

Blogging is a great way to engage with people, voice your opinions and share information. Doing it regularly will help you quickly learn some of the technical stuff. But don’t think you won’t be able to cope with it. Most blog platforms are simple to use.

I’ve been blogging for 3 or 4 years. It has helped me develop as a writer, put me in touch with some amazing people and it’s proven to be a valuable part of my search engine optimisation strategy for my business as a copywriter.

It has never been easier to get your voice published so make the most of it – start your blog today and before you know it, you’ll be an expert.

The art of Search engine optimisation is enabling businesses all over the world reach a greater audience online.

Done well and it can achieve amazing results, often slashing marketing budgets as expensive off line marketing campaigns and PPC are no longer needed.

But many people are still tempted to cut corners, impatient for results.

Don’t let temptation get the better of you. SEO will take time, but if you try to take short cuts, Google could slap you with a penalty.

Natural Link Building

Links to your website are very important. They act as an indicator to Google showing how relevant your site it for a particular topic. Each link is seen as a vote, so the more you have the more relevant you are perceived.

Buying links is a very bad idea and can be very damaging to your website. If you build your links naturally and ensure they come from related sites (i.e. the same industry/topic) you won’t fall foul of Google.

You can attract good links in a number of ways. For example:

•    Create a good Google local profile and fill it with relevant information about your business
•    Contact your Chamber of Commerce and enquire about having a link from  their website
•    Ask your suppliers/clients if they would be prepared to link to you
•    Issue press releases
•    Add your details to influential online directories in relevant categories
•    Write blogs and articles on your industry and link back to your website

Don’t be lazy about back links

Generating back links is often one part of SEO that is forgotten about.

Yes it takes time and is a constant process, but one that is vital if your SEO strategy is going to work. If you find it too much for one person to deal with on their own, get a link building team organised and share the workload.

Don’t indulge in the dark arts

Whatever you do, don’t succumb to using black hat techniques. These are activities that Google frowns upon. They are used by unscrupulous SEO companies to try and get quick results. But they could land you in hot water.

Black hat techniques cover things such as cloaking, using link farms, invisible text and keyword stuffing (more about that in a moment).

No keyword stuffing

The art of SEO Copywriting is quite complex and it pays to get a professional to create your copy for you.

Many people believe that by cramming as many instances of their keywords into their copy as possible, they’ll achieve magnificent rankings.

Well, if you do that, all you’ll achieve is unreadable text. What’s the point in good rankings if:

•    People can’t read your copy
•    People are completely turned off by your copy
•    Your copy doesn’t convert

A professional SEO copywriter will not only create compelling, benefits driven copy that will convert, they will also know where and how to use your keywords in a natural way.

Don’t repeat yourself

In a rush to own as much of the internet as possible, some companies are tempted to cut and paste text from their website into as many directories and online profiles as possible.

Don’t! Google frowns upon duplicate copy. If you fall into this trap you’ll earn yourself a hefty penalty so make sure you only add original content to your website, blogs and directories.

Don’t forget to keep the momentum going

Even when companies manage to avoid all the SEO hurdles I’ve mentioned, without constant maintenance their strategy will fail.

SEO isn’t a static entity, it’s very fluid. You must constantly monitor and tweak it to get the best out of it. Back links must be generated constantly to maintain and improve your rankings.

Your hard work will be rewarded by higher rankings, more targeted traffic and a reduction in your marketing spend.

The semantics of understanding

Before I get into the nitty gritty of this post I want to clarify something. It saddens me to say the term ‘keyword density’ hasn’t yet been confined to the rubbish bin.

It is a term that’s still freely banded about by ‘SEO experts’ who claim to understand the inner workings of Google. Well if they did, they would know that ‘keyword density’ is nonsense.

Its origins come from this kind of mindset:

“The more I mention a phrase the higher the keyword density; the higher the keyword density the more relevant my page will be to Google. Therefore the more keywords I can cram into my copy the better.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

By thinking this way you completely disregard the competition from other pages – so what do you do? Take a look at them, work our their keyword density (total number of words divided by the number of times your phrase is repeated – expressed as a percentage) chuck in a few more instances of your keyword so your density is higher and, bingo! You’ve created the spammiest website known to man.

As a result all legibility, usability and clarity diminish.

If you are a die-hard KD fan and think I’m talking a load of c***p, let me ask you this – if KD was how the search engines calculate the relevancy of your web page, surely all you’d have to do is fill your page with your keywords. But if you did that, no one would use the internet because it would be full of gibberish. Hello? Are you getting it now?

The search engines aren’t stupid. Keyword density is useless – it totally ignores the contextual relevance of your page to your subject matter let alone internal links, back links, navigation, usability etc.

So how do you create SEO copywriting that the search engines love?

Its semantics Jim but not as we know it

Your keywords (and the quality of your keyword research) are important. But you don’t need to stuff your copy with them. When writing naturally you automatically build meaning by using keywords, synonyms, verbs and nouns.

Of course, placing your keywords in optimum places is very important – META tags, title tags, headings (H1 etc), navigation and links. But that alone won’t indicate to the search engines what your page is about.

For example, if you’re writing about ink, you have to give Google some help so it can determine how you are using that term.

The answer is semantics.

How to research related words

There are 2 ways you can go about researching related words. You can either guess, or you can use the Google Tilde Search.

I find the latter works best.

So how do you use it? Well simply type your keyword into Google immediately preceded by the tilde sign (~). You will then see several pages of results with the related terms in bold.

Going back to our word – when you search “~ink” Google shows us the following terms:

Inkjet
Cartridge
Inks
Toner
Paint
Pen

And that’s just from the first two pages of the search results.

Then all you have to do is drill down by picking the relevant terms and doing a Tilde Search on those too. Eventually you will have a list of related words that, when used within your text, will enhance the SEO on your website.

Why you need to know this

I should think that’s pretty obvious!

By using semantics within your website copywriting, you will be boosting the relevance of your pages in Google’s eyes. And the more relevancies you show, the higher your rankings.

But remember, this will only work in conjunction with a well planned SEO strategy.